WWPW IV

Or, World Wide Photo Walk, the 4th time I've done it. This was the 10th Worldwide Photowalk.

Last WWPW I did was 2 years ago. Which  I won (location only)! This years was downtown. Day wasn't bad temperature wise. 50s and 60s as morning went on. It was pretty windy though, which made it challenging at times.

20 people signed up this year, most showed up. Walked for about 2 hours shooting random things, got some ok pictures, not sure any of them were really 'wow' factor photos.

2 years ago, only 3 people entered the location competition. I hope more enter this year. I'll be curious to see what other people shot.

Starting off with my entry in the contest this year. Most of my shots most could have used a little something more, but hey, you're trying to cover a lot of ground, in a pretty short time.

An old Ford truck, in front of a colorful mural. Lots of various murals are scattered about downtown in the alleys. If it would have been a 1950s car, you'd think it was somewhere in Cuba probably. Not the wild west.

I WON the local walk with this photo! Nice!

Would like to see the other entries from our walk, but so far they aren't anywhere to be seen. The Kelby Photowalk is a great idea, but it seems to get less organized, more neglected by the people putting it on every year.

I am now one of ~984 potential winners in this years big worldwide contest. No prizes for location winners anymore, apparently. Just an entry in the main contest. That's ok.

So, now that I've won two worldwide photowalk contests, (for my location), does that mean I can refer to myself as a multiple award winning photographer?

More photos and contest news in the next post...

That's More Like It!

A week later, and I'm out hiking again. Gotta get those fall colors while they are here.

After last weekend's cold and foggy day, this weekend was much improved. It was still a bit cool, and a little breezy. But mostly clear, with some interesting clouds and overall just a great day for a hike.

See, that's what I mean! Now that's what you expect to see. Fall colors were overall a little better than last week. Though inconsistency still was about. Just one of those kind of years I guess.

This tree kinda sorta looks like a woodpecker. That's what I'm thinking, anyway.

Pine needles. But not fall colors. Just another pine slowly dying due to the Pine Beetle. That's still going on. Though it seems to have slowed. I hope it ends. There's too many dead pine trees, and I'd really like to see the remaining ones survive.

My favorite shot of the day. It's a 3 shot panorama. The colors on the ground and the contrasty layers of clouds in the sky really looked great. Probably my favorite shot of the whole season!

Late in the hike, headed out. A couple big old dead trees against the fall colors and the sky. At least I didn't get rained on today. I was even warm for a while! Unfortunately, I barely saw any wildlife. No deer, moose, hardly even any squirrels or chipmunks. Can't win 'em all. People and dogs were about it. Still a great days hike though. 

Something In The Air

Fog, that's what in the air. Lots of it!

Out for a Fall hike, and the weather turned out to be kinda iffy. It was very foggy with low clouds, threatening rain later in the day. Temps were in the 50s, a little breeze. So it was chilly. Instead of wearing light clothes and trying to stay cool, I was wearing layers and trying to stay warm!

The fog made for some interesting conditions to be sure. The fall colors were decent but very scattered. Some spots were still very green, some were about at peak color, a few areas looked past peak and leaves were down. Inconsistency! But the combo of the fog and the fall colors still looked pretty nice.

The day started off pretty foggy, then it tried to clear for a while. Mid afternoon the fog and clouds came rolling back in DARK. YOu could see it coming. It's 'The Mist!' I could tell it was about to rain, and it started sprinkling about 15 minutes before I got to the car. Good thing I was wearing my rain jacket. Within minutes of getting to the car it started raining pretty hard. And it hailed a little too. I timed that just right! Came home, took a hot shower!

Trade In, Trade Up

My old Pentax K10D DSLR camera, that I haven't used much lately, was something I've been thinking of selling. Just the body. It's about 10 years old, and since cameras are now little computers with lenses on them, not vessels to keep film from getting exposed, they need upgrading every so often. Technology changes make them obsolete, just like an old PC. Then they just sit around unused, collecting dust. More clutter. I'm trying to declutter. And so decided to get rid of it.

Was going to sell it on eBay. But Amazon offers a trade in service. And the value of it was maybe a little better than what I've seen cameras like mine sell for on eBay. Since I still had all the manuals, cables, original box etc. I gave it a try.

They ended up giving my about $30 less than I expected. Which wasn't great, they said it was 'heavily scratched' which it was not. The box was a little rough looking, but not the camera. I also traded in an even older Canon G6 point and shoot I hadn't used in years. Didn't get much for it. Not sure I like the Amazon trade-in service, feels like I should have gotten a little more. But it's done, time to move on.

The money from both of them will go towards a new DSLR probably. Just haven't decided which one to get. It'll be a Pentax, since that's what all my lenses are. Using the old technology to pay for the newer technology seems to be about as good a way to go as any, I guess. Who knows.

When I get a new camera I'll post about it here. Till then, I'll keep shooting with my trusty little Pentax MX-1. My only usable digital camera now. Yikes!

End Of The Road

For my old Jeep.

I've had a Jeep J10 pickup truck for ~17 years. I really like the look and style of the old Jeeps. Even if they aren't the most reliable thing on four wheels.

I had big plans to restore and fix it up, customize it, possible even doing a custom extended cab body conversion. Which they never made, so it would be really unique. It was easy to mock up the idea on the computer!

I even though of doing a whole body swap. Taking the body, with the extended cab, swapping it onto the frame and systems from a Toyota. Then it would still look like the Jeep, but be drivable and reliable as a Toyota. Certainly doable, many people do swaps like that.

I just didn't want to invest the time, large amounts of money and more. Plus my lack of detailed knowledge of how to do that sorta stuff finally made the decision for me. After mostly just maintaining it and keeping the rust semi at bay, I decided to sell it.

Put it on eBay, and it sold. To a guy near Toronto Ontario in Canada! Seems like a real nice guy, was happy to get it. Shipping it there wasn't cheap, I know that. Hope they fix it up and enjoy it up there, eh?

So here's it's send off - DHCBWOCHO style...